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Month: August 2019

To avoid gluten, you basically need to stay away from its sources: wheat, barley, rye, and triticale. But in a world where cross-contamination and food additives are a norm, here are some quick and useful tips to keep your gluten-free shopping and meal planning a breeze. Have this ready in your back pocket at all times to keep safe against gluten.

Go Natural

Fruits: fresh, frozen or canned.

Double-check: For dried fruit, check the label for gluten-containing additives

Vegetables: fresh, frozen, or canned.

Double-check: Frozen potatoes are not always gluten-free. Read the label for additives.

Befriend the Label

FDA only allows packaged foods with less than 20ppm of gluten to be labeled “gluten-free”, so checking for the label would be a good rule of thumb. But even without the gluten-free food stamp, some packaging already add helpful information on their labels, so you may know which ones to stay away from. Check also for information if it has been manufactured in the same facility that also processes food containing gluten, or if the product may contain gluten.

Know What To Look For

BUT without the gluten-free label still in most packaged foods today, grocery shopping can be a much more complicated task than we may like. To make it easier, first, check for obvious gluten sources:

Wheat

Barley

Rye

Triticale

Malt

Brewer’s yeast

Oats (unless specifically labeled gluten-free)

Then, the less obvious terminology that means the same :

Triticum vulgare (wheat)

Triticale (cross between wheat and rye)

Hordeum vulgare (barley)

Secale cereale (rye)

Triticum spelta (spelt, a form of wheat)

And look for the following terms represent ingredients that always contain gluten: